News from the world of maths: The mathematics of monopoly on More or less

Submitted by plusadmin on December 12, 2007

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The mathematics of monopoly on More or less

More or Less, BBC Radio 4's program that takes you on a journey through the often abused but ever ubiquitous world of numbers, has recently returned to the airways, and next Monday (17th December 4.30 pm), regular Plus contributors Rob Eastaway and John Haigh are featuring on the program discussing the maths of
Monopoly.

Eastaway and Haigh have written for Plus many times on a range of topics including:

Plus spoke to Eastaway about the science of Monopoly, and without giving too much away, Eastaway commented that because the "Go to jail" square is the most frequently visited sqaure on the board, the orange properties are the best investments, as players leaving jail are most likely to then land on these properties.

This means you should invest in Bow Street, Marlborough and Vine Street — or in the US version, St James Place, New York Avenue or Tennessee Avenue.

Comments

If it is true that the most landed on space is St james place, new york avenue, and Tennessee Avenue.
Then the second most landed on space is Oriental, vermont avenue, and connecticut avenue because of the advance to go cards in community chest and chance. The advance to boardwalk also puts the roller in a strong position to land on those properties so there are 3 cards give the roller a 40% chance for you to land on one of three properties before getting past them.
The least landed on square is park place because it is exactly 7 squares away from the go to jail square square which is the most frequently rolled number plus there are a lot of advance to go cards in chance and community chest that by pass park place and board walk. The second least landed on square is mediteranean avenue because when you get an advance to go card from chance you cant land on that square and have only 1/18 chance of landing on baltic avenue.
railroads, utilities, st charles place, illnois avenue, and board walk are all hit more frequently because they all have chance cards. New york gets hit a little bit more because of the go back 3 spaces card.